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Hazards

Understand hazardous processes

Explore the mechanisms behind earthquakes, eruptions and severe storms, and distinguish a physical process from its local impacts.

Satellite view of Typhoon Mangkhut with a compact eye and spiralling cloud bands in September 2018.
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Typhoon Mangkhut, September 2018, observed by NASA EOSDIS. The western North Pacific storm later affected the Philippines and southern China; this image is a historical observation.
NASA ARIA map showing measured ground displacement along the Kamchatka Peninsula after the 2025 earthquake.
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Hazards

Earthquakes

An earthquake releases energy when rock slips along a fault.

An arching orange lava fountain erupts from a vent on Kīlauea amid dark cooling lava.
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Hazards

Volcanoes

Magma composition, gas content and the conditions of ascent influence eruption style.

Debris, damaged buildings and inundated land at a fishing port near Kesennuma after the 2011 tsunami.
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Hazards

Tsunami

A tsunami has a long wavelength and travels faster in deeper water.

The clear eye and tall spiral cloud walls of Hurricane Isabel, photographed from the ISS.
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Hazards

Tropical cyclone

A tropical cyclone draws moist air inward near the surface, with strong ascent in the eyewall and outflow aloft.

An aerial view of damaged buildings and washed-over land on the Bolivar Peninsula after Hurricane Ike.
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Hazards

Storm surge

Onshore winds push water towards the coast, while lower atmospheric pressure also raises the water surface.